After KXIP won the toss and chose to field first on a slow surface in Mohali, SRH were made to work hard throughout the innings as they ended up getting a competitive 150.
The chase was going smooth for the home side before a set Mayank Agarwal fell with three over to go- unfolding a last-minute drama as KXIP lost three wickets in space of 12 deliveries. However, a calm KL Rahul made sure KXIP win their fourth game by six wickets to go third in the points table.
Here are the three takeaways from the game:
Warner leads laborious batting
On a turf where batting was tough, David Warner showed that he was a class apart as he scored an unbeaten 70 runs off 62 deliveries to help SRH reach a fighting 150/4.
This was Warner's fourth half-century in this IPL season and it included six fours and a maximum off Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Warner has got a fifty in all of his last seven innings against KXIP.
As the ball was skidding from good length batting became difficult from start with SRH scoring just 27 runs for the loss of one wicket at the end of the powerplay.
After losing Jonny Bairstow early, Warner and Vijay Shankar put on 49 for the second wicket. Manish Pandey got a start but couldn't finish off well as he was out in the last over for 19 off 15 balls.
Then came out Deepak Hooda who transferred the momentum to SRH with 4,4,6 off the last three balls to add some respect to the slow innings.
Ashwin's bowlers choke SRH
Tight bowling led by the skipper Ravichandran Ashwin made sure SRH didn't get a big total on the board.
As SRH batsmen were finding it difficult to carve the ball for boundaries and sixes, disciplined bowling made sure they toiled hard for each run.
First, Mujeeb broke the Bairstow-Warner partnership which has done well in most matches for SRH. He had Bairstow caught by Ashwin for 1(6).
Ashwin was involved in three of the four dismissals as he had Vijay Shankar caught behind and later completed a run-out of Mohammad Nabi on the non-striker's end off his own bowling.
Ankit Rajpoot who came for Murugan Ashwin impressed with economical figures of 0/21 from his four overs.
Karnataka boys shine
After the fall of dangerous Chris Gayle, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal led the chase with brilliant knocks to propel their team to victory. The close buddies who play for Karnataka in the domestic circuit smashed crucial half-centuries as they put on 114 runs for the second wicket.
It was KL Rahul's third fifty-plus score in last four innings as he top-scored with an unbeaten 53-ball 71 including seven hits to the fence and boundary. Mayank Agarwal scored 55 runs off 43 deliveries to get his fifth IPL fifty.
After Mayank's wicket, KXIP struggled to get the runs as David Miller was out in the same over and Mandeep Singh in the next.
Needing 11 off the last over, a composed Rahul made sure they went over the line with one ball to spare.
KXIP will need their top-order to keep firing to increase their chances of making it to the playoffs.